When we wrote Twitter Revolution two years ago, we were laughed at a for calling the change in marketing and selling a revolution.
Now Eric Qualman updates a video tied to his excellent book Socialnomics with data we didn’t have just a few months back.. and I wonder Was I underestimating.
When I started using the technologies that later became known as social media, before writing Twitter Revolution, I would have never thought there would come a time when I would get asked every day:
“How do you find the time to use social media?”
As a serial entrepreneur investing and using online connections to build my businesses, I just assumed that I’d only pursue technologies that were good for business. Playing games is not my style.
Blogging, social networking sites, online media and the tools like Twitter are not only a must have for any blog or business that wants to be found online… they will save you time when used right.
Getting Into the Conversations of Customers
At first glance, the conversations fragments you see online look like a waste of time. People talking about TV shows, sports, the weather and what they ate for breakfast. According to the studies we’ve seen on Twitter, 4 out of 5 people never get past setting up an account and wondering what to do next.
The reason these conversations look so frivolous is that you can’t see the context. The writer and the readers likely know each other, maybe met offline, or have engaged in some manner on any number of web sites.
In the past 2 years, we’ve had an unprecedented opportunity to listen in on these conversations. We’ve seen as much as 20% of them are related to some product or service.. the word of mouth that we all knew was happening but could not listen to..
Conversations in any setting are filled with the same phrases and nonsense you might hear in line for a movie, at the next table in a restaurant, or in an airplane. But when they are posted in public, you can listen, filter out the majority and easily find new leads, new business opportunities and market information that has never before been available.
Social Media Will Revolutionize Your Business
The secret of profitable social media is easy. Just drop the meaning you are used to for media.. this is not an advertising medium.
To succeed online, in business, and in life, remember the golden rule. You will get everything you want if you help enough other people get what they want.
Marketing and social psychology research has proven time and again that reciprocity is not just a good moral code, it is the most powerful of hooks into a customer. When you give a sample, offer free information, or become known as a helpful individual, you draw people to you.
Reciprocity is not quid pro quo. (which I like to translate to “I will scratch your back if you scratch mine”). It goes one step further. Instead of seeking to help someone because they have done or will do something for you, smart marketers have found that giving without expectation of quid pro quo is much more likely to get results.
The simplest example would be offering a drink to someone visiting your office. Offering the beverage without demands always works better than saying “I’ll let you have the drink if you will buy something”. Bottom line oriented marketers have measured the results. You’ll get far more sales when you “let go” and make a gift. The recipient of the gift feels a social obligation to consider your offer, a much stronger bond that quid pro quo.
Now that we have simple and easy ways to give online… with a quick answer to a question, a referral to an online friend, or just acknowledgement that you are listening, we can invoke reciprocity in just a few seconds.
The result is my marketing mantra for social media…
LISTEN and LOVE
It’s no different than the attitude you’d have if your biggest potential client walked in the front door or called you on the phone. You’ll drop everything and make sure they are taken care of. However, thanks to social media tools like Twitter and the applications to filter and get pertinent messages, we can do this dozens of times a day.
Start with a search for the keywords that someone looking for help in your industry would enter into a search engine. Twitter search at http://Search.Twitter.com will work just fine. You’ll find that someone, somewhere is asking a question that you may have heard a million times. Just REPLY to that person with your short answer.
The reader asking may not be in the right geographical or demographic area to buy from you, but thousands or Twitter users will have access to your answer, and see that you are the kind of person that helps others.
We all want to buy from people that we know, like, and trust. Helping others online is the fastest way ever to get to know prospects, give them good reason to like and trust you and invoke reciprocity.
Listen and Love.. It’s as simple as that.
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Warren Whitlock is a blogger, speaker, publisher and marketing strategist for Twitter and social media. He works with authors, entrepreneurs, corporations that want to connect with new markets, attract more leads and sell more. His next book, Profitable Social Media, will be published in 2010. Warren blogs at http://BestSellerAuthors.com/blog |
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Warren is a #1 best selling author, speaker, publisher, blogger, and social media marketing expert. He wrote the first book about Twitter and Mobile Marketing, He is the host of Social Media Radio and speaks frequently about social media marketing, online publicity and marketing, social networking and building lifetime value for rapid growth.
Warren helps businesses transform to a new way of doing business using social media and online marketing and promotion to attract the right audience from the 2 billion people using the Internet. His breakthrough strategies to integrate mobile marketing, public relations and and lead generation with conversions to return on investment for lifetime value has helped hundreds businesses achieve rapid and continuing results from their marketing process.
Warren has been an entrepreneur in the computer, publishing and media. He started his career in broadcast advertising, developing cross promotions between two or more businesses, and has used the same strategies in direct mail and other media.
Over the past decade, Warren has taught thousands of small businesses, authors and individuals how to use proven direct marketing principles to promote product or service, started a trade association for manufacturers in the imaging products industry and served on several executive board
2009 is only hours away. Time to tweet so love to my followers.
I’m giving away some gifts tomorrow, January 1st 2009 via Twitter.
Like most of our Twitter projects, there are no rules when we started this. About a week ago, someone offered me a piece of artwork to give to my 5000th follower.
I had done the milestone follower bit a few times before. Usually without any warning.. I’d grab number 600 or number 2000 from the email notices Twitter sends, and send out some love via Twitter.
Most of the time, there no “gift”.. just tweet from me, comments on blogs, and a bit of promotion to help them gain some new followers.
It was so much fun, I started doing it all the time.. like “who needs a reason?” <grin>
So when the idea came up for the 5000th follower, my first reaction was that I did not want to create a rush of new followers just for the number. Instead, I decided that I’d use the occasion to give away MORE GIFTS.
This morning I tweeted that I needed some gifts. Response has been huge. There are some fabulous books and “real world” items and lots of digital products and even some services.
I’ve been doing give away cross promotions for new best seller books over at ZeroCostPromotions.com for years. I know this works. We’ve seen business deals for tens of thousands of dollars come from the connections made by partners and had dozens of best seller books in the process. Giving stuff away build reciprocity and great relationships.
Next step will be to sort through them and figure out how to give them away. Most likely, you’ll be seeing tweets on January 1st announcing it. Maybe “9 prizes for 2009″ as the theme.
What can we learn from this experience?
Subscribe to this blog, follow me on Twitter and watch my twitter stream and the hash tag#Happy09 for more on the Happy New Year Gift giveaway
